- He was posthumously awarded both the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 2012, and the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 2019.
- He received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1975, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padma Shri (1977), and Padma Bhushan (2001), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1992), the highest award for cinema in India and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (2008), the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
- Bhupen Hazarika was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, actor, artist, editor, filmmaker, professor and politician from Assam, widely known as Sudha Kontho (meaning cuckoo, literally "nectar-throated").
- For a brief period, he worked at All India Radio, Guwahati when he won a scholarship from Columbia University and set sail for New York in 1949. There he earned a PhD (1952) on his thesis "Proposals for Preparing India's Basic Education to use Audio-Visual Techniques in Adult Education".
- Hazarika studied at Sonaram High School at Guwahati, Dhubri Government High School and matriculated from Tezpur High School in 1940. He completed his Intermediate Arts from Cotton College in 1942, and his BA (1944) and MA (1946) in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University.
- The eldest of ten children, Bhupen Hazarika (as well as his siblings) was exposed to the musical influence of his mother, who exposed him to lullabies and traditional Music of Assam.
- His songs, based on the themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, are especially popular among the people of Assam, West Bengal and Bangladesh.
- He is also acknowledged to have introduced the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema at the national level.
- In New York, Bhupen Hazarika befriended Paul Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, who influenced him. He used music as the "instrument of social change" following the path of Paul Robeson who once told him about his guitar - "Guitar is not a musical instrument, it is a social instrument." His song Bistirno Parore which is based on the tune, imagery and theme of Robeson's Ol' Man River. This song is translated in various Indian languages, including Bengali and Hindi and sung by the artist himself, and is still popular.
- His songs were written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi.
- Hazarika was hospitalized in the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute in Mumbai in 2011. He was admitted to the intensive care unit on 30 June 2011. He died of multi-organ failure on 5 November 2011.
- On 8 September 2022, Google honored Hazarika with a Google Doodle to mark his 96th birth anniversary.
- In February 2009, the All Assam Students Union erected a life size statue of Hazarika on the banks of Digholi Pukhuri in Guwahati.
- He received in 1979 The Gold medal from the State Government of Arunachal Pradesh for "outstanding contribution towards tribal welfare, and uplift of tribal culture through cinema and music.".
- In the period after the release of Ek Pal (1986) until his death, Bhupen Hazarika mainly concentrated on Hindi films, most of which were directed by Kalpana Lajmi. Ek Pal (1986), Rudaali (1993) and Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001) are major films of this period. Many of his earlier songs were re-written in Hindi and used as played-back songs in these films. These songs tried to cater to the Hindi film milieu and their social activist lyrics were browbeaten into the lowest common denominator.
- He was the first Indian to win 'Best Music Award' for the film "Rudaali" at the Asia Pacific International Film Festival in Japan (1993).
- During his lifetime, a full-length documentary feature biopic film on his life titled Moi Eti Zazabor('I am a Wanderer') jointly directed by Late Waesqurni Bora and Arnab Jan Deka was launched in 1986 at his Nizarapar residence in Guwahati city. Music for this biopic film has been scored by 5-time International Best Music Awards winner only Assamese musician, songwriter, composer and singer Jim Ankan Deka, who also worked as Chief Assistant Director of this film.
- His funeral was attended by an estimated half a million people.
- From early in his life, he was at the forefront of a social battle against the entrenched forces of casteism that sneered at a member of the Koibarta community making it as a musician of note and kept him away from the upper-caste Brahmin woman he had loved. Eventually, when the spirited Hazarika did marry, it was to a Brahmin woman, his revenge of sorts against a caste-ridden society.
- He was also considered as a new trend setter in Bengali music.
- He was elected the President of the Asam Sahitya Sabha (= non Government, non profit, literary organisation of Assam to promote the culture of Assam and Assamese literature.) in 1993.
- In a poll conducted in Bangladesh, his song, 'Manush Manusher Jonno (Humans are for humanity)' was chosen to be the second most favorite number after the National anthem of Bangladesh.
- Some of his most famous compositions were adaptations of American Black Spiritual that he had learned from Paul Robeson, whom he had befriended during his years in New York City in the early 1950s.
- He contested as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from the Guwahati constituency, persuaded by Chandan Mitra via Kalpana Lajmi which he lost to the Indian National Congress candidate Kirip Chaliha.
- He was introduced to Kalpana Lajmi in the early 1970s by his childhood friend and India's top tea planter Hemendra Prasad Barooah in Kolkata. Her first feature film Ek Pal with music score by Hazarika was produced by Barooah. Subsequently, Lajmi began assisting him professionally and personally till the end of his life.
- As a singer, Hazarika was known for his baritone voice; as a lyricist, he was known for poetic compositions and parables which touched on themes ranging from romance to social and political commentary; and as a composer, for his use of folk music.
- In 2010, Assam Cricket Association renamed the Barshapara Cricket Stadium as Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Cricket Stadium.
- After completing his education, he became a teacher at the Guwahati University. But after a few years, he left the job and went to Kolkata where he established himself as a successful music director and singer. During that period, Hazarika made several award-winning Assamese films such as Shakuntala, Pratidhwani etc. and composed evergreen music for many Assamese films.
- The longest road bridge of India, Dhola-Sadiya bridge is built over the river Lohit, which is a tributary of the Brahmaputra. It links Dhola and Sadiya both are in Tinsukia district of Assam is named after him.
- Bhupen Hazarika composed music for films from Bangladesh to which got international acclaim.
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